There was Karen Finley, naked and gleaming on the Theater Artaud stage, having made her own Slip n' Slide with a white plastic sheet covered in a few gallons of honey. Her latest show, "Shut Up and Love Me," which runs through this Saturday, March 24, at the cavernous Mission performance space, tackles those thorny psychosexual faves, the Electra and Oedipal complexes, while giving the audience a big lusty lap dance in the process.

At last Thursday night's opening show, the San Francisco Art Institute grad and internationally acclaimed artist seemed more relaxed than she's been on previous visits, spontaneously riffing on how much the city has changed over the past few years, while she reclined on a divan with her red satin dress hiked up over her hips.

Though her performances are always drenched in manic energy, the unrehearsed dagger that night came when she snapped at an audience member who had snuck in a camcorder. Her eyes flashed with fire as she singled him out mid-monologue saying, "I see what you're doing over there and you better turn that thing off right now! I've had enough problems with the NEA without a copy of this circulating!" Between that and an earlier cell phone ringing from the other side of the theater, it would have been enough to send a lot of seasoned performers into a tizzy, but she recovered like a pro. By the time she launched into her incendiary honey dance, her flailing legs shooting golden streams into the front row, it was clear those flies hadn't stuck at all.

Welcome back to all the Bay Area bands who made the pilgrimage to Austin's South by Southwest last week. The number of dot-coms in attendance was down this year, but one of the high-profile ones -- SF's own Listen.com -- threw a huge bash featuring sugar poppers (and major festival buzz kids) Call and Response, plus Oranger, Preston School of Industry and the White Stripes. An insider reports that not only was the free beer flowing at the Web site's party, but free blender drinks were being dispensed via test tubes from roaming booze pushers.

In other news, verge-of-destruction band Brian Jonestown Massacre boldly canceled its performance three hours before showtime; Samiam won second place in the film competition for its music video; and Ray Davies, Chris Cornell and Stephen Malkmus all showed up to take in the aforementioned Preston School of Industry's show at mega-venue La Zona Rosa.

Random statistic: Out of the seven returning musicians I spoke with, four came down with the flu, two were still nursing hangovers and one enjoyed a fabulous night of casual sex.

SF culture mavens Maw Win and Kathleen Munelly are the proud parents of a new issue of Comet, an arts magazine about the city and beyond. For this second installment, they scored interviews with New York poet Sapphire, Ian Mackaye of Fugazi, artist Minnette Lehmann and renegade prankster John Law. Plus, there's a special package by community activists about gentrification in the, yes, Mission, and a peek inside the Cannes Film Festival by local photographer (and former head chef at Yo Yo) Mark Brecke.

The gals are throwing themselves a big old launch party at Southern Exposure (401 Alabama St.) on March 31 at 6 p.m. with entertainment by Mark Growden, gypsy cowgirls Down River and many others, hosted by everyone's favorite psychic receptionist, monkey frightener, journalist and bisexual posterperson Charles Anders.

This year, for the first time, ceremonies for these two awards will be combined at the Film Society Awards Night, in hopes of creating one large star-studded doozy of a benefit dinner in the Argent Hotel's Metropolitan Ballroom on Wednesday, April 25. The 44th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3.

Voting for grand marshall of this year's Pride Parade takes place this weekend at fine watering holes, bookstores and dance clubs near you. You can check out the nominees (even Hillary Rodham Clinton's on there!) at SFPride.org.

After two years of running readings and events at Blue Books, the groovy bookstore inside the New College campus on Valencia Street, Brandon Downing is moving to New York. Join him for a couple of pre-relocation blowouts on Wednesday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. with readings by New Yorkers Olivier Brossard and Tom Devaney, and March 29 for a reading, reception and exhibition for David Larsen and Beth Murray's San Jose Manual of Style.

Granfaloon Bus bass player Jeff Stevenson knows just what hungry bar patrons want: a nice, toasty grilled cheese sandwich. For the second time this month, Stevenson set up his ad hoc grill station at a Mission District bar last Sunday and sold them for a mere two bucks. Currently unemployed, the musician isn't expecting to make rent money as much as provide a service to hungry beer drinkers too lazy to go get a burrito.